Jet-powered crafting or Creating a Beach Scene quilt

(Beach Scene quilt pattern available here now)

Some cardboard packaging, two empty toilet-rolls, masking tape, some red fabric scraps (from the back of my recent secret project) and a little help were all that James needed to make his own jet-pack and zoom around the house!

Meanwhile, I got started on my next quilt. I sketched the design a while ago.

I pulled out all my beach quilt fabrics and sorted them into 4 rough piles: sand, water/waves, reef/sealife and sky. Some of the fabrics merge between two - mainly water and reef/sealife (which is very handy) or incorporate several of these faetures.

Since I was starting with the reef, I spread out all the reef and sealife fabrics to get an idea of what I was working with, and put the others out of the way to give myself plenty of room.

Then I started building the reef onto the foundations. This gets easier every time, partly due to experience, but mostly thanks to an increasing selection of fabrics!

The tripod is there because I'm developing the pattern as I go, and am takign as many progress and steps photos as I can. You can see how much of a mess the fabrics end up in as I unfold and autition them to find just the right bit!

Below is the reef with the fabrics all cut and pinned in place on the foundations...

...and this next photo shows the completed bottom section of the quilt, with all the fabrics sewn on, and the five foundation sections joined. Note the otter at the top right - I just had to include it!

That was as far as I got last night.

Tonight I pulled out the water fabrics and a few of the lighter sea creatures and started selecting the fabrics for the two side sections of the quilt. Here I've piled fabrics in order on the foundations, but I later made a few changes as I played with different options. I love these colours!

Here are the two sides with the fabrics pinned ot the foudations and laid out in rough position with the reef. can you spot the otter?

Here he is! I moved him! His background was simply too pale for where he was in the quilt - not only did the piece look out of place, but I wouldn't have been able to build up the next section of water nicely based on the pale fabric. I only had to unpick one and a bit seams to swap the piece, or I mightn't have bothered. He's back up at the (new) top right; a much better position in terms of both layout and colour. Once the pieces are sewn, neither his side nor his paw will be covered.

And although blogger has decided this seahorse is better on its back, I just loved the way the positioning of these two fabrics makes it look as though it's blowing bubbles. Yes, it was intentional!

Tomorrow I'll piece the side water sections.